Audi locks out front row in the Lone Star state
Frank Biela claimed pole position at the end of a frenetic qualifying session for the opening round of the American Le Mans Series at the Texas Motor Speedway. The Joest Audi driver pulled out a lap in the closing minutes of the session to knock Jan Magnussen's Panoz off the top of the timesheets
The German, who shares his R8 prototype with Emanuele Pirro this weekend, said: "It was very exciting. Pole position was always changing and I wasn't sure if we were going to make it. When I saw Jan was on pole, I was a bit worried."
Biela's team mate Dindo Capello also improved in the closing stages to make it an all-Audi front row for Sunday's race around the 2.50-mile circuit.
Magnussen looked to have had the measure of the Audis in the solo 20-minute qualifying period aboard the radical new Panoz LMP07. But a problem refitting the bodywork after a mid-session set-up change prevented him from mounting a last-gasp response to the German cars.
"I tried really hard, but I couldn't get enough heat in the tyres to improve on third," said the Dane, who co-drives with David Brabham as usual. "It's a shame that we missed out on the pole, but it was good while it lasted."
The second Panoz, an older LMP Roadster S, qualified fourth in the hands of Klaus Graff, ahead of the customer Audi R8 run by the Champion Racing squad. Andy Wallace was prevented from taking the fight to the works cars, as he had done in free practice, by an electrical problem.
Ron Fellows will line up seventh for the ALMS opener after snatching the GTS class pole from Chevrolet team mate Andy Pilgrim. "Andy got a pretty good time and I didn't think we were going to beat it," admitted the Canadian afterwards.
Germany's Lucas Luhr claimed pole position in the GT class aboard his works-assisted Alex Job Porsche by a clear eight tenths of a second. Former Le Mans winner JJ Lehto ended up second despite missing the final minutes of the session with a drivetrain problem in his Schnitzer BMW M3. Third fastest in the 'baby' class was Christophe Bouchut in a Kelly-Moss Motorsport Porsche.
Frank Biela (Audi R8) 1m15.887s
Dindo Capello (Audi R8) 1m16.350s
Jan Magnussen (Panoz LMP07) 1m16.634s
Klaus Graf (Panoz LMP Roadster S) 1m17.222s
Andy Wallace (Audi R8) 1m18.389s
Jay Cochrane (Panoz LMP Roadster S) 1m21.852s
Ron Fellows (Chevrolet Corvette C5-R) 1m23.963s
Andy Pilgrim (Chevrolet Corvette C5-R) 1m24.106s
Lucas Luhr (Porsche 911 GT3-RS) 1m25.653s
JJ Lehto (BMW M3) 1m26.441s
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